Learning the Hard Way: 3 Things For After the Fast

The one-day liquid fast went fine; it was the following day that didn't go so well.

On Friday, the day of the fast, there was only about a half an hour or so where I started to feel energy-deprived and slightly disoriented. So, I went to the store, got some vegetable juice and chugged down half of it (not exactly recommended), which only took about 15 minutes to kick in. Then I felt fine. The rest of the day I was hungry of course, but it was bearable. I mostly just craved food and found the greasy, salty fair food that was paraded past me later that night especially enticing. But, I survived.

Side note: On the liquid fast, it is recommended to thin out vegetable/fruit juice with water and to avoid overly sweet juices.

The next morning was a different story.

I woke up sweaty, disoriented and even a bit nauseous. So, figuring that I was dehydrated and had low blood sugar, I sat myself down and drank a glass of water and ate some dried Goji berries and chocolate. That was a bad idea because I was sick about a half an hour later and the damn Goji berries came right back up. Three euros worth of Goji berries literally down the toilet. Not fun!

1. Don't Break The Fast With Chocolate Or Any Other Hard-to-Digest Foods

There is definitely a lesson to learn here. As I already kind of knew and should have planned for a little better, once you end your fast/cleanse you need to slowly introduce normal food back into your diet. You cannot go from zero to one hundred and eat everything you have been fantasizing about without feeling the very severe consequences.

2. Research What Foods Are Easy On Your Stomach and Eat Them Slowly

In the end, the morning that I had been fantasizing about, complete with a giant coffee and breakfast burrito, didn't happen. About a half an hour or so after defeat I ate a mashed banana, which tasted delicious, and then followed that an hour and a half later with a pureed carrot soup. After that I was right as rain and started to eat freely. Perhaps even tempting fate a little bit.

I did notice that for a short while, food tasted better. I was very sensitive to flavor and consistency and really enjoyed the rest of the day.

I have learned from some experienced fasters that a peeled apple that has either been grated and left out to turn a bit brown or that has been steamed is a great way to accustom your stomach to solids again. Peeled apples are apparently easy to digest.

Please learn from my mistake and remember to introduce foods that are harder to digest very slowly once you finish your fast. Do some research before the fast to find out what your options are.

3. Prepare For Your First "Meal" 

Once you have decided how to ease yourself back into a normal rhythm, make sure you have the food available and at hand so that temptation does not take over. It will still take some self-discipline to not reach for the chocolate.

Plus, if you start to feel really terrible on the fast, perhaps it isn't the best time for your body. I would have no problem breaking a fast if I was getting some severe or abnormal distress signals from my body.

Although I won't be doing another fast in the year future, I am determined to do it once again, perhaps using different techniques. In any case I now know how to introduce normal solid foods slowly back into my diet afterward.

I hope that I have saved you from a similar fate. You're welcome.  

One-Day Liquid Cleanse

I am a breakfast person.

I eat breakfast every day and waking up in the morning, making some coffee and putting some bread in the toaster is one of my favorite parts of the day. Today, however, is not one of those days. I am doing a one-day liquid cleanse and have started my day with hot water, the juice from about half of an organic lemon and honey. 

To make this yourself just heat up the water, squeeze in the lemon juice and then wait 5 minutes for the water to cool before stirring in the honey as honey is not meant to be heated.

Side note: organic lemons should be used for the lemon water due to the fact that a cleanse/fast enables the body to remove toxins and of course adding any additional toxins to the body during the fast is counter-productive. Organic lemons tend to look greenish as opposed to normal supermarket lemons that are sprayed with a yellowing agent.

The rest of the day I will abstain from food, and drink only herbal tea and water. I have a recipe for a special Ayurvedic detoxifying tea but I have decided to just use the organic herbal tea that I already have, which contains Greek mountain herbs (whatever that is), fennel and sage. It is delicious and you can find it under this link with the name Total Reset.

My stomach has already started complaining about this fast but I am sure we will get through it together.  I chose today because I have things to do and therefore won't be sitting around thinking about all the delicious food that is sitting just 10 ft away in my kitchen. I am going to do some yoga shortly and am working this afternoon. I have also decided not to meet up with friends which usually revolves around eating and drinking.

Lastly, I am abstaining from coffee today because I don't think the caffeine is good on an empty stomach and it is not recommended in any of the fasts that I have seen. This by the way is a double whammy because I have coffee every day, so not only do I miss the rich creamy taste, but a headache is probably also going to kick in soon.

Anyway, I will keep you posted.

Health Benefits of Fasting

From personal experience I found fasting to be very beneficial because it helped me to realize the roll that food plays in my life beyond the basic need of satisfying hunger. Although that is a strong argument for fasting again, I was curious about the physical effects of fasting. So, I have attempted to answer some questions I had by doing some quick and dirty online searches. I have summarized my findings below with the supporting links. 

Comments and/or additions to this information are more than welcome.

Should fasting be applied as a method for weight loss?

For short-term weight loss, fasting works because without any calories coming into the body, it will start to burn stored fat deposits for energy. This will lead to short-term weight loss, however for people who fast sporadically, they will gain the weight back once the fasting period is over and they return to their normal diet. Thus when applied sporadically, fasting cannot be used as a long-term weight-loss solution.

However, regular intermittent fasting seems to have health benefits that could contribute to weight loss (if that is something that your body would benefit from) and overall health improvement.

What are the health benefits, if any?

In addition to the mental/spiritual benefits, fasting appears to offer many physical benefits. Abstaining from food or reducing calorie-intake makes the body more sensitive to insulin and helps to maintain normal blood sugar levels. Some animal studies also suggest that fasting can reduce the risk of cancer by slowing down the growth of abnormal cells as well as slowing cognitive decline in diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease (more in the Los Angeles Times). Additionally, one study cited in an article in the New York Times suggests that those who fast regularly have healthier hearts and a lower chance of cardiovascular disease due to metabolic changes caused by fasting (read more).

Among other schools of thought, Ayurveda recommends fasting as a way to detoxify the body. You may also have heard of some of the many cleanses that are popular today like the master cleanse, which I did on a yoga retreat, that follow a similar principle. The fasting frees the body from normal digestion to flush out toxins from food that wasn't properly digested as well as any chemicals and additives that we ingest as a part of our normal every day diet. When we fast and use up stored fat deposits, the toxins contained in these deposits are then released and eliminated or neutralize by organs such as the liver, kidneys and colon.

Can fasting be harmful?

So it seems that fasting can offer health benefits. Of course, it is always recommended that you consult your doctor first to make sure it is the right method for you. Prolonged fasting can have some strong adverse effects especially for those with compromised health. Low sugar levels can also lead to dizziness and nausea.

Also, when you have decided that fasting is right for you, you should do some initial research about what fast would be suitable for you and your lifestyle. Remember that the intermittent fasting, that was referred to earlier, means periodically eating 25-30% fewer calories than is recommended for that particular size, gender and age. Fasting does not necessarily mean totally abstaining from food. Lastly, don't cut out water / liquids. This is necessary for staying hydrated and flushing out the toxins.

Click here for a general overview of fasting.

I hope this was helpful. Of course this was just some preliminary fact finding. I would encourage you to take it further.

Anyway, in conclusion I have decided to fast this week for 2 days on a liquid fast from my Ayurveda cook book. I will be sharing the experience.    

Humming To Relax

This little nugget was given to me by a student of mine and all I have done to fact check is compare it with my own experience. He told me that singing and humming can relieve stress because to do it you are using a completely different part of your brain than you need, let's say, to crunch numbers or cram for a test.

I love to sing... always have. I am not any good and I will sometimes sing only the refrain of a song over and over again, even if that is only 3 or 4 words. While doing it I am totally oblivious to what I am singing or how often I repeat the line, to the misfortune of those in earshot. I even sometimes sing lyrics that relate to my emotional state like some bad, private musical that my fiancé can't seem to escape. 

But singing I only do when I am feeling grounded and free. It is a sign that I am doing well even if I am not necessarily in a good mood.

So, it stands to reason that purposely taking myself to that place of groundedness by singing or humming would relieve stress, taking my mind off the present task and providing an outlet for any pent-up emotions.

In any case, I am going to try it out. The good thing about humming is that you can do it at work without drawing too much attention, whereas belting out a ballad might not be totally work-appropriate.

I apologize in advance to the neighbors because belting out ballads at home however, must be tolerated. Hmmm... today is feeling very "Total Eclipse of the Heart - ish"

Fasting to Savor Food

The longest time that I went without eating was 2 days.

I did it on a yoga retreat as I was getting my teaching certificate. Three times a day we drank a water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup mixture and that was it. Over the two days I fantasized more or less constantly about food, imagining giant burritos and greasy oversize pieces of pizza on parade. I even went so far as to imagine what it would be like to take a bite, relishing the thought of biting into the hot pizza feeling melted cheese and and tomato sauce squish between my teeth and the pull of softened crust ripping apart. My imagination was definitely busy, however I also had some rare quiet moments where I wasn't thinking about food and my stomach was quiet.

On the way home I was so desperate for food that I scarfed down the first thing that was unfortunate enough to get in my way, which happened to be a super-processed blueberry muffin from the gas station. So that was obviously a bad choice, but even still I was surprised at how disappointed I was after the first bite so I kept trying it until the whole thing was gone. Despite ample amounts of sugar and fat, the muffin left me feeling completely unsatisfied. And it wasn't just the muffin; lots of things that I tried just weren't what I remembered. The real thing wasn't living up to my fantasies and I wasn't as starved as I had thought I was.

It wasn't that I couldn't enjoy food anymore, far from that in fact, but I was suddenly aware of how craving food wasn't the same as enjoying it. I noticed that when I had cravings, I was building up all kinds of expectations around the experience of eating the food and these expectations clouded the actual experience of tasting, chewing and eating. On top of that the experience didn't satisfy the craving. Eating the muffin left me just as unsatisfied as the pizza would have. 

Fasting helped me to enjoy and savor food as it was and also realize how much time I spend thinking about food, which I guess isn't a bad thing in itself but can be distracting. I was amazed at how much just a couple of days of only ingesting liquids would change my perspective.

However not long after the fast, I reverted to old habits. I have to say that I don't always take time to savor the food I eat and still cave in to cravings.
So I think it is time for another go.
I am curious to see what the next experience will bring.

I plan on researching some different fasts and cleanses to see which one is best for me and I will be posting during the process. 

Until then, bon appétit!